Slide fasteners



May 27, 1958 F. P. SUTTON ETAL SLIDE FASTENERS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 9, 1954 FIG. IL

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Francis Ijaul Ajuwonfi Claude-Lyn? ceB 1921711122 5 Y 1 ATTORNEYS.

May 27, 1958 F. P. SUTTON :ETAL' 2,835,951

SLIDE FASTENERS- Filed April 9, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 .Fiyzncis Zjaul ASjui'Z'on, "g qlaudeLcuwemefl uckenhzmz, BY MW W ATTORNEYS.

United States Patent SLIDE FASTENERS Francis Paul Sutton, Sutton Coldfield, and Claude Laurence Buckenham, Erdington, Birmingham, England, assignors, by mesne assignments, to Lightning Fasteners Limited, London, England, a corporation of Great Britain Application April 9, 1954, Serial No. 422,203

Claims priority, application Great Britain April 13, 1953 6 Claims. (Cl. 24-205.11)

This invention relates to slide fasteners, and is particularly concerned with the bottom stops for such fasteners.

The employment of slide fasteners in the fly fronts of trousers is well known and in order to facilitate the incorporation of such fasteners in trousers it is becoming customary to utilise what is termed semi-finished fastener. Semi-finished fastener merely comprises two stringer tapes with interlocked members and in order to assemble the fastener in the trousers the stringer tapes whilst interlocked are attached to the respective fiy front portions of the trousers. The stringer tapes are then separated, the fly front portions are incorporated in the trousers and the members on the stringer tapes are again interlocked by passing them through a slider, and the fastener is then provided with a bottom stop and, if desired, top stops. V

The bottom stop for such a fastener has hitherto been in the form of a metallic staple and has .been applied to the fastener by a foot-operated stapling machine. However, in certain circumstances the cost of such a machine and the space it requires may not be warranted. In such circumstances, it is desirable that an alternative form of bottom stop for semi-finished fastener be provided, which does not require any special appliance to attach it to the fastener.

It is, therefore, one of the objects of the present invention to provide an alternative form of bottom stop for use with semi-finished fastener.

It is another of the objects of the present invention to provide a bottom stop which may readily be attached to semi-finished fastener without theme of auxiliary appliances. V 1

According to the present inventions bottomstop for a slide fastener comprises "an inner member surrounded by an outer member, the inner member being resilient and so cooperating with interlocking members at the end portions of the stringer tapes of the slide fastener and with the outer member as to secure the bottom stop to the slide fastener.

According to one feature of the invention, the inner member is formed from wire and comprises a substantially U-shaped member adapted to be disposed on one side of the stringer tapes of the fastener and partly to surround the interlocked members at the lower end portion of the fastener, the terminal portion of each limb of the inner member being bent inwardly to provide an in-turned projection adapted to engage between adjacent interlocking members on a stringer tape when surrounded by the outer member and an intermediate portion of each limb being provided with out-turned projections adapted to engage within recesses formed in the outer member, in such manner that relative movement of the outer member, the inner member and the interlocked members is prevented.

According to another feature of the invention the inner member is a metal pressing and has a base portion with four limbs extending therefrom in such a manner that two limbs are disposed on one side of the stringer tapes and two limbs are disposed on the other side of the stringer tapes.

There will now be described, with reference to the accompanying drawings accompanying the provisional specification and by way of example of the invention, two embodiments of the invention.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a front view of the lower end of a sliding clasp fastener provided with a two-part bottom stop in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

Figure 2 is a view of the lower end of the fastener of Figure 1 with the bottom stop partly assembled and with the front wall of the outer member of the bottom stop removed;

Figure 3 is a side view of the fastener with the bottom stop partly assembled;

Figure 3A is a side view of the outer member of th bottom stop;

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the inner member of the bottom stop;

Figure 5 is a front view of the lower end of a sliding clasp fastener provided with a two-part bottom stop in accordance with a second embodiment of the invention, the front wall of the outer member being removed; and

Figure 6 is a prespective view of the inner member of the bottom stop of Figure 5.

Referring to Figures 1 to 4 of the drawings, the sliding clasp fastener comprises tapes 1 and interlocking members 3 mounted about beaded edges 5 of the tapes. Normally these stringer tapes will be cut to the desired length from a continuous length of stringer tape, sometimes referred to as continuous chain and after being suitably incorporated in a garment in the interlocking members will be associated by means of any standard form of slider (not shown). 7

The inner member 7 of the bottom stop is formed from wire bent substantially to a U-shape. It is disposed on one side of the stringer tapes so that its base portion 9 is adjacent the lower edges of the stringer tapes. The limbs 11 he alongside the outermost edges of. the interlocking members so as partly to surround those members, as shown particularly in Figures 2 and 3. The terminal portions 13 of the limbs are bent inwardly so as to provide in-turned projections directed towards the interlocking members 3 and the lengths of the limbs are such that the each extreme end 13 is adapted to engage within the gap between two adjacent interlocking mem-' bers of the associated stringer tape. Furthermore, an intermediate part of each limb is bent outwardly to provide an out-turned projection as shown at 15 in Figure 2.

The outer member 17 comprises a split box-like member (see Figure 3) adapted to fit about the stringer tapes. The slide walls of the outer member are provided with recesses 19 adapted to receive the out-turned projections 15 of the inner member.

In order to assemble the outer member on the fastener. it is pushed, by hand, over the inner member and urges the inwardly bent end portions 13 into the gaps between adjacent interlocking members. outwardly bent portions 15 are forced within the outer member. When the base portion of the outer member abuts the base of the inner member, the out-turned projections will, due to the resiliency of the inner member, move into the recesses 19.

It will be appreciated that in this position, the in-turned projections are positively held between adjacent inter locking members and that little or no movement will occur between the inner and outer members. Conse- During this time the r quently the two-part bottom stop will be positively held on the lower end portion of the fastener.

Referring to Figures 4 and 5 the inner member 21 and outer member 23 are generally similar to those of the embodiment described with reference to Figure 1. However in this embodiment the inner member is formed from a metal pressing and has a base portion with four limbs 25 extending therefrom. Two of the limbs are arranged to lie on one side of the tape and the other two are arranged to lie on the other side of the tape. Each of the four sides of the outer member is provided with a recess 27 which is adapted to receive an out-turned terminal projection 29 of the inner member. The intermediate portions of the limbs are provided with inturned projections added, to engage between adjacent interlocking elements.

We claim:

1. A stop for a slide fastener having stringer tapes with interlocking members thereon comprising an inner member having a pair of interconnected legs resiliently urged apart, said inner member comprising a U-shapcd wire having the free ends of its legs extending inwardly for respectively entering the space between adjacent interlocking members on the end portion of each of said stringers, an outer member having a pair of interconnected legs rigidly spaced apart, said outer members being movable into surrounding engagement with said inner member with the legs of said outer member engaging the legs of said inner member so as to move the latter toward each other against their resilient urging and hence to move each of the inwardly extending free ends of said inner member legs into the space between adjacent interlocking member on the associated stringers, and interengaging means between the legs of said members cooperable due to the resilient urging of said inner member legs to secure said outer member in surrounding engagement with said inner member.

2. A stop as defined in claim 1 wherein said interengaging means comprises projections on the legs of said wire and cooperating recesses in the legs of said outer member.

3. A stop for a slide fastener having stringer tapes with interlocking members thereon comprising an inner member having a pair of interconnected legs resiliently urged apart, said inner member comprising a thin U-shaped metal pressing having the free end portions of its legs extending inwardly and then projecting outwardly at the extreme ends thereof, the inwardly projecting portions of the legs of said pressing being arranged to respectively enter the space between adjacent interlocking members on the end portion of each of said stringers, an outer member having a pair of interconnected legs rigidly spaced apart, said outer member being movable into surrounding engagement with said-inner member with the legs of said outer member engaging the legs of said inner member so as to move the latter toward each other against their resilient urging and hence to move each inwardly projecting portion of said inner member legs into the space between adjacent interlocking members of the associated stringer, an interengaging means between the legs of said members cooperable due to the resilient urging of said inner member legs to secure said outer member in surrounding engagement with said inner member.

4. A stop as defined in claim 3 wherein said interengaging means comprises the outwardly projecting free ends of said metal pressing and cooperating recesses in the legs of said outer member.

5. In a slide fastener, the combination comprising stringer tapes having interlocking members thereon. a stop on the end portion of said tapes comprising an inner member having a pair of interconnected legs resiliently urged apart and disposed adjacent the tapes outwardly of the interlocking members thereon, means on said legs movable therewith in a direction parallel with the plane of the stringer tapes for entering spaces between adjacent interlocking members on the end portion of said stringer tapes, an outer member having a pair of interconnected legs rigidly spaced apart, said outer member legs being U-shaped to receive the end portion of said stringer tapes, said outer member being disposed in surrounding engagement with said inner member with the legs of said outer member in engagement with the legs of said inner member so as to retain the entering means on said inner member legs in the spaces between adjacent interlocking members, and interengaging means between the legs on said members cooperable due to the resilient urging of said inner member legs securing said outer member in surrounding engagement with said inner member.

6. The combination as defined in claim 5 wherein each of said inner member legs includes a pair of spaced interconnected leg portions disposed on each side of the end portion of one of said stringer tapes and surroundingly engaged by one of said outer member legs.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,217,571 Susskind Oct. 8, 1940 2,250,469 Crow July 29, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS 147,602 Australia July 30, 1952 513,020 Great Britain 1939 

